Royal Mail sell-off will offer staff 10% of shares

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Thousands of Royal Mail workers will be offered cheap or discounted shares as part of plans to privatise the postal service

Thousands of Royal Mail staff will be offered cheap or free shares in the company as part of the government's plan to privatise the postal service.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, said 10% of the shares in a privatised Royal Mail would be set aside for its workforce in his speech to the Lib Dem conference. The offer, which is regarded as key to getting the support of workers, would be the biggest employee share scheme of any sell-off in 25 years – since the privatisation of British Telecom in 1984, said Cable.

Questions to be answered will include whether the shares will be "gifted" to some or all of Royal Mail's 150,000 staff and whether there will be some free allocations, with workers then allowed to buy more discounted shares with their own money. Staff will also want to know whether they will have to hold on to their shares for a certain period of time or whether they can sell them quickly.

Royal Mail union leaders are vehemently opposed to such a scheme and yesterday described Cable's plans as "deeply patronising". The Communications Workers Union general secretary, Billy Hayes, added that Cable's plans were "destabilising and simply not necessary".

But the business secretary insisted it would be a "once in a generation chance" to transform the culture at Royal Mail and claimed it would "energise everyone and allowing employers and employees to share in the company's future success".

He has pledged to deliver a detailed plan as soon as next month with a full policy statement and outline bill.

Cable is determined to press ahead with an employee offer in the hope that it might generate loyalty. The government has made it clear it is keen to harness the motivation seen in organisations such as the staff-owned John Lewis department store group.

It intends to find a private-sector investor willing to inject cash into Royal Mail to pay for much-needed modernisation. Any new investor will not have to take on responsibility for Royal Mail's pension scheme, which has a £10bn deficit. That liability is likely to stay with the government.

Many of the key privatisations of the Thatcher era saw shares handed to employees. At British Telecom telephone engineers dived in to take their free allocations, despite exhortations to hold back from union leaders. Allan Leighton, the former Asda supermarket boss, proposed selling shares to workers when he was chairman of Royal Mail, but the idea was regarded as a non-starter at the time.

In Ireland the unions got actively involved in the privatisation and built up a 35% stake in Eircom, allowing them to exercised real influence over the way the service is run.

[Glenno]

Yeah but you gotta buy them whats 10% of f**k all anyway

[shimmyrule]

anyone any inkling how long it will be til privatisation?
I really want evr, and the quicker the better.

[PostieWithTheMostie!]

Free shares..? hmmmm you don't heehaw for free in this world unless you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth...

[DirtyHarry]

They can stick their shares where the sun don't shine.

[barbario]

I was just wondering if wheather what happened in Ireland is the way to go for our Union.

[bobbyden]

As I have said on another thread, it will be extremely difficult to stop the Tories and Lib-Dems introducing privatisation because of the comfortable working majority they have in the House of Commons. With the Post Office network out of the equation totally, I see little interest from the general public in keeping Mail Centres and Delivery Offices from joining the Private Sector. The only weapon in the CWU armoury is industrial action, and if the last round of strikes is anything to go by, a worthless exercise.

Vince Cable has presented nothing more than a set of gimmicks. Offering the workforce a 10% stake in the company is one thing, but in what will be a profit-driven environment, Vince Cable conveniently forgot to tell us (they always do at Party Conferences) about the cut in our pay and conditions, even bigger swipes at duties and the stone cold certainty of huge job losses. That 10% suddenly becomes a very hard pill to swallow, except of course if you are a manager. They stand to be the chief beneficiary out of all this, already overseeing mail-centres and delivery offices in the dictatorial manner which has become the norm over the past 12 months and guaranteed to make life harder for the employees they care nothing about.

Still, all hope is not lost. Having witnessed the most stage-managed Lib Democrat Party Conference I can ever remember, with the Tories expected to produce an equally unedifying rally of the party faithful, the cold reality of the huge cuts in Government spending in mid-October will soon leave all those orchestrated standing ovations as nothing more than distant memories. There will be no hiding places for this coalition in defending massive reductions in public spending, most of which are totally unnecessary.

For now, sit back, hold your nerve and watch this coalition fall apart at the seams, as it surely will.

[postghost]

No doubt pro rata for p/timers

They can stick it up their arse